The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-05-07
Mark TWain's Tribute.

HARTFORD, CT, April 27.-At
the annual reunion of the Army and
Navy Club of Connecticut this even
ing, the chief address on the memory
of General Grant was made by the
Rev. DR.. M. B. Riddle, formerly a
chaplain in the service. He was fol-
lowed by s. i. Clemens Mark
Twain, who delivered characteris.
tic address. He said: 81 will de-
tain you with only just few words
just. few thousand words; and
then give place to better man-if he
has been created. Lately a great and
honored author, Matthew Arnold,
has been finding fault with General
Grants English. That would be fair
enough, may be, if the examples of
imperfect English averaged more in
stances to the page of General Grants
book than they do in Mr.. Arnold's
criticisms upon the bool-but they
don't. Laughter and applausel. It
would be iair eno6gfY. fsIay Us = s,srfr
instances We're commOrfer in Genera.
Grants book than they are in the
works of the average standard au-
thOr-but they aren't. In Mr.. Ar
nOid's paper on General Grants book
we find couple Of grammatical
crimes, and more than several exam
pies of very crude and sloyenly En-
gIish. The following passage, all by
itself. ought to elect him: Meade
suggested to Grant that he might
wish to have Immediately under him
Sherman, who had been serving with
Grant in the West, He begged him
not to hesitate, if he thought it for
the good of the service. Grant assur~
ed him that he had no thought of
moving him, and in his memoir, af-
ter relating what had passed, he
adds etc. To read that passage a
couple Of times would make a man
dizzy to read it four times would
! make him drunk. Great laughter.
Mr. Breen, countryman of Arnold,
made this discriminating remark
TO suppose that, because man is "a
poet or historian, he must be correct
in his grammar, is to suppose that an
architect must be joiner; or a ply
sician compounder Of medicine.
Mr.. Breen's point is well taken. If
you should climb the mighty Mat
terhOrn to look out over the king
doms of the earth, it might be 8
pleasing incident to find Strawberries
up there but great scot you don't
climb the Matterhorn for strawb9r'
ries! CONTINUED applause
"There is that about the sun which
makes us forget his spots /; and when
we think of General Grant, our puis-
es quicken and his grammar vanish
es. We only remember that this is
the simple soldier, who, all untaught
of the silken phrase makers, linked
words together with an art surpass-
ing the art Of the schools, and put in-
to them a something which will still
bring to American ears, as long as
America shall last, the roll of his
vanished drums and the tread of his
marching hosts. Tumultuous ap-
/ plause. What do we care for gram
| mar when we think of the man that
put together that thunderous phrase,
/ Unconditional and immediate sur
render" And those others: i pro.
pose to move Immediately upon your
works, Il propose to fight it out on
this line if it takes all summer Mr..
| Arnold would doubtless claim that
that last sentence is not strictly
grammatical ; and yet, nevertheless,
it did certainly wake up this nation
as a hundred million tons of Al,
! fourth proof hard boiled, hide
bound grammar from another mouth
| couldn't have done. And finally we
have that gentler phrast--that one
which shows you another true side
| of the man; shows that in his soldier
heart there was room for other than
CORY war mottoes, and in his tongue
the gift to fitly phrase them Let
us have peace" Prolonged APP
plause and cheers,